With everything else happening about the place, the subtle changes in the relationship between the rugby codes over the past few months – driven by individual players and clubs – might not be immediately apparent.
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Rugby union and rugby league have been, pretty much, sworn enemies since 1895 but even as people were banned from stadiums and even countries, there were rules of engagement.
Two of the key rules were: suspensions in one sport were respected in another; and contracts were recognised, even if in the case of Sonny Bill Williams, that recognition came belatedly.
When South Africa brought hooker Henry Kemp, suspended from rugby union for the use of an anabolic steroid, to Sydney for the World Sevens in 1994, he was promptly banned from playing.
But recent events indicate that even these scant niceties are disappearing.
Sale rugby union club announced late last year that Super League's top try-scorer, the New Zealander Denny Solomona, had "retired" from rugby league. We were expected to believe that out of all the people in the world who could have announced this piece of information, Sale were doing so as a favour to the poor lad. Presumably his internet connection wasn't very good.
Then, surprise, surprise, Solomona – under contract at Castleford for two more years – signed for Sale and is now playing for them while Cas' go through the courts looking for recourse and the British game is stripped of one it's shiniest stars.
Ben Barba is under a 12-match NRL suspension for testing positive to a recreational drug. Yet French rugby union side Toulon have announced they have signed him until early May, when his NRL ban is due to expire.
Huh?
Since when was doping a "local rule"? Those crazy Aussies and their bans on drugs! Since when could you return a positive drug test in one sport and just go and play another? Can we expect to see Jarrod Mullen playing for the Wallabies next month?
One suspects there is nothing more at play here than naked opportunism but if I were a rugby union person, I might be able to mount a cogent intellectual defence of these occurrences.
On one hand, rugby league wants to be recognised as a completely different sport than rugby union. Its recommendations to this affect are before Sport Accord and the IOC, and one suspects they won't be held at bay for much longer.
It wants separate funding in places like South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, rather than affiliating with the local rugby union authorities as instructed. But at the same time rugby league is happy for sponsors, broadcasters and fans to confuse it with the "rugby" they already know, if this is advantageous. Why are major US stadia showing interest in hosting games in the 2025 World Cup? Because they don't know the difference between the two codes and are hoping their local populaces don't, either.
So it's: "OK, mungos – if you're a different sport then your contracts and suspensions don't apply. If someone can retire from golf and take up rugby union, they can retire from your game as well. And why should we recognise a drug ban imposed by one of your insignificant little local authorities? You don't want to be affiliated with us, remember? Cuts both ways!"
Be that as it may, surely a sprinter or a swimmer subjected to a drug ban would not be allowed to play for Toulon, either.
And if Denny Solomona had a contract with Castleford's council to collect rubbish at 5am every day, surely he'd be in trouble if he failed to show up at work one morning because he was playing on the wing for Sale?
Forget the code war. In both cases, court injunctions should be sought to uphold the integrity of, respectively, contracts and suspensions.